


Warmth in Winter

by demonsonthemoon



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Hermann being a closet badass, M/M, nice alcohol, non-deminational fluff conveniently happening on the 25th of December, or as Newt says, vague mention of sensory overload
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 10:24:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8975920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonsonthemoon/pseuds/demonsonthemoon
Summary: Last Christmas party at the Sidney shatterdome.One more last Christmas for Hermann.A bittersweet affair. But Newt has decided not to let him spend the whole night brooding in silence.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was completed in April of last year then lost in the wrong folder on my computer and never posted. Happy holidays everyone!

“You don't look like you're enjoying yourself.”

 

Hermann Gottlieb turned his head around slowly, not at all surprised to see his colleague, Dr Newton Geiszler, standing right next to him. He was holding a drink in each hand and half-smiling at Hermann in a way that always indicated an attempt at Emotional Support.

 

Newton handed him a cup of Glühwein. “Are you enjoying yourself?”

 

Hermann took a sip of his drink without answering, and rolled his eyes when his colleague gestured for him to move a chair to the left. He moved anyway, and let Newton flop down gracelessly next to him.

 

“You should try to smile. This is probably the last oh-so-conveniently-non-deminational-holiday-party-that-just-so-happens-to-fall-on-the-25th-of-December we're gonna get to celebrate here. We should be moved to Hong-Kong in less than three months.”

 

Hermann shaked his head. He knew that. Actually, he was acutely aware of those facts, which is why he was even here in the first place. He was trying to enjoy it, he really was, but the celebration was just too loud, too bright, and overwhelmingly _not enough_ at the same time.

 

His family hadn't exactly been religious, but he and his siblings had been raised in a vaguely catholic culture anyway, and they had celebrated Christmas together all of Hermann's youth. His parents never bought bright decorations, but Karla always put up candles that Bastien insisted to light and then Dietrich would fight with their mothers about how much alcohol they were allowed to drink. Even while he was at school in England, Hermann used to come back for the holidays.

 

But then there had been university. Fights with his father. The Kaijus, the Jaegers, the Wall.

 

And now this, another last Christmas party, not in Germany but in Australia, and Hermann just couldn't force himself to be in a cheerful mood.

 

“Come on,” Newton said, jostling his arm and forcing him to stand up. “Let's get out of here.”

 

Hermann finished his Glühwein in one long sip and left the empty cup on a table while Newton handed him his cane. He frowned. “And where are we going exactly?”

 

“My room? Your room? _Somewhere_? I don't know, dude. Haven't thought that far yet. Come on.” He thrust Hermann's cane into one of his hands and took the other, effectively dragging the physicist out of the room.

 

Hermann waited until they were in the hallway and on their own to shake off Newton's grip, forcing the other to stop walking. “Newton. You don't have to do this.”

 

“Um?” Newton looked up in fake nonchalance, putting his hands in his pockets. “Do what?”

 

“I can take care of myself. You should go back and have a good time, not... not _look after me_.”

 

Newton shaked his head with a small smile and looked down at his feet. “I probably shouldn't, actually. I always crash really hard after parties like this. Rollercoaster of emotions, all that. Especially with, you know, all that's been going on.”

 

The small hand gesture he made seemed to encompass all the casualties of the Kaiju War, and Hermann felt forced to look away. He sighed. “My room, then.”

 

He started walking and didn't look back, confident that Newton would follow. Having arrived at his quarters, he silently opened the door and let Newt pass. Then, under his colleague's inquisitive gaze, he opened a drawer and pulled out a stack of paper, then reached further inside it and picked up a half-empty whiskey bottle.

 

“Ohmygod, dude, I love you right now,” Newton said, reaching for the bottle. Hermann smacked his hand away. He went to the bathroom to retrieve two glasses. They were the only ones he had, and were far from fancy, but they would have to do.

 

Newton was holding out his hand and pouting, but relaxed again as soon as Hermann poured him a glass.

 

“Happy holidays!”

 

Hermann raised an eyebrow. After all, there weren't actually getting any holidays. This one night of indulgence, and the New Year's Eve party that would soon follow, were a sacrifice made by the authorities in hopes of keeping the troops morale high enough that they wouldn't _need_ holidays.

Still, he clanked his glass against Newton's, and took a big gulp from his drink, relishing in the burn of whiskey down his throat.

 

He could feel Newton's gaze on his neck, but when he crossed his colleague's gaze, the latter only smiled knowingly.

 

They both sipped their glass in silence, and Hermann poured them a new one. There was a good chance that both of them would wake up slightly hungover, but at least the whiskey was of better quality than the alcohol available at the party.

 

Besides, with or without alcohol, there was always _something_ about Newton in his room that made him feel on edge. It wasn't exactly a negative feeling. Despite what others thought, the two scientists had actually learned to get along rather well. Hermann couldn't say that they had restored the candid friendship they had had when they were only written correspondents, no. Their disastrous first meeting and the months that had followed had made that impossible. But they admired each other, worked well together. They even _liked_ one another, though their ways of showing it were possibly _unusual_ , what with all the shouting and fighting they did. It came naturally to them. They made it work. Explaining that to others would take too long, and they didn't have time to waste.

 

Perhaps it was part of what created the tension. In Hermann's room, they didn't shout or fight. They teased, they argued. They did not fight.

 

From where he was sitting on Hermann's bed, Newton nudged his shin with one foot. He had apparently kicked off his shoes at some point, without Hermann noticing.

 

“Stop thinking, dude. I can almost hear you from here.”

 

Hermann rolled his eyes, and finished his second whiskey. “Easier said than done.”

 

“Tell me about it,” Newt replied, flopping down gracelessly on Hermann's bed, thankfully without spilling one drop of his drink. “All we ever do is think, man. I mean, that's cool. I'm good with that. Better to think too much than not think at all.”

 

Hermann raised an eyebrow, but Newton didn't reply, instead rolling to his side to take a sip of whiskey more easily.

 

“This shit is really good.”

 

“Most things that come from my father's collection are.”

 

Newton stared at him, suspicious.

 

“Did you steal this whiskey, Hermann?” he asked, taking the voice of a teacher dealing with a troublesome child.

 

“No.”

 

Newton smiled and took one more sip.

 

“My brother did. He sent it to me as a present when I told my dad that even a wall as big as his ego wouldn't stop the kaiju.”

 

Newton choked, then became red in the face in a desperate attempt not to spit out the expensive alcohol. Hermann appreciated the gesture, and couldn't help but laugh a little.

 

When he finally managed to swallow, Newton wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and shaked his head a little. “I forget that you're actually a badass. Takes me by surprise. Would have been hot, if I hadn't been nearly dying.”

 

Hermann smiled softly and put his empty glass on his desk, relaxing against the back of his chair. He felt more relaxed than before. The alcohol was probably helping with that. He was also starting to realise just how tensed he had been earlier, which explained more clearly why Newton had left the party with him. It was truly a wonder that people still found the energy to throw parties like these. The Kaijus were coming more and more often, and two Shatterdomes had already closed. The inland populations were perhaps reassured by the idea that the Coastal Wall was growing around them, but Hermann and Newt knew better.

 

“Seriously, dude. Stop it.”

 

Newton kicked Hermann's shin once more, forcing him to focus on him instead of on the ceiling.

 

“Come here?” He asked. His tone was soft and open, far from the jabbing remarks they threw each other while working.

 

So Hermann untied his shoes, carefully put them down near his chair, and closed the distance between him and Newton.

 

The other man put his glass down and out of the way, and immediately reached for Hermann's face. The two hands on his cheeks were slightly cold, but Hermann leaned into the touch all the same. The tension in the room hadn't really disappeared, but it had turned into something calmer, that fit Hermann's mood rather better.

 

Newton stopped moving an inch away from Hermann's lips, leaving it to him to close the distance. Which Hermann did. Newton's lips were slightly chapped, but pliant against his. The smell of whiskey filled the air between them. Hermann smiled.

 

Newt pulled away slightly and looked at him. “Tired, uh?”

 

Hermann nodded, and let himself be pulled down completely onto the bed until Newton was lying next to him, eyes on his face.

 

“Merry 25th of December,” he whispered. They were crammed together in the bed in a way that would surely get uncomfortable, but Hermann put a hand on Newton's wrist so that he wouldn't leave.

 

“Merry Christmas.”

 

Hermann closed his eyes.

 


End file.
